Description

This portrait of William King, Maine's first governor (1820-21), was painted by Philip Spooner Harris, circa 1855, from Gilbert Stuart's 1806 portrait of King as a young Bath businessman.

Philip Spooner Harris (1824-1884), a portrait painter and great admirer of Gilbert Stuart, lived in Bath near the end of Gov. King's life. Harris practiced the art of portraiture in the Eliot Block of Bath from 1850-1864 before relocating to New York.

The original Gilbert Stuart portrait of King is part of the Maine State House Portrait Collection in Augusta. The Harris copy is owned by the Patten Free Library in Bath.